D10.2
SUPER Showcase
Showcase presentation outline
1. Introduction to the project
2. General business introduction: today problems,
challenges and opportunities for improvement
3. Brief introduction to SUPER methodology and, at
a very high level, architecture and ontology
stack
4. Business (Telco) scenarios for each of the
methodology step, in which to underline:
► Business view
► Technological challenge
► SUPER solution
5. Business impact
6. Next steps/objectives of the project
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1. Introduction to
the project
SUPER Research Project
■ EU funded research
project (FP6 – 026850)
■ started April 2006
■ 3 years duration
■ part of the European
Semantic Systems
Initiative (ESSI) cluster
■ based on several past
projects like SEKT, DIP,
SWWS, and IBROW
■ 19 educational and
industrial partners
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SUPER Consortium
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SUPER’s objectives
■ Framework for semantic Business Process
Management
■ Bring BPM to the utter business experts, away
from the pure technical view
■ Intelligent and flexible reaction to change
■ Integration of heterogeneous Business Processes
■ Mediation inside and between organisations
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2. General business
introduction
Global Business Context and
Problems (1/3)
■ Imaginable growth of information and automation
■ New business opportunities that the information society
offers, e.g. service world, e-Commerce
■ Increase of competitiveness, many new market entrants
and a challenging regulatory environment
■ Increase of B2B relationships between companies to bundle
more elaborated services
■ Customers demand higher service integration and
adaptation to their needs
■ Fusions and alliances, country specific regulatory aspects,
company internal re-organizations
■ Shorter time-to-market for new products
► Demand for agile, dynamic processes
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Global Business Context and
Problems (2/3)
■ Emergence of a global knowledge-networked
innovation economy: The emergence of a global
knowledge-networked innovation economy tremendously
changes the way in which business is conducted, resulting
in rapid technological changes, shrinking product life cycles
and enforcing a strong global competition.
■ Increasing global competition and customer demand:
Due to the increasing competition as well as an increase in
customer independence and demand, companies of every
size are shifting from being suppliers of products to
suppliers of complex system solutions solving customer
problems and needs by providing complete customer
solutions through tightly integrated innovation value chains.
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Global Business Context and
Problems (3/3)
■ Optimization of Cost-performance ratio:
Companies are facing an increasing financial pressure and
are required to optimize their cost-performance ratio. As a
result, they focus on their core competences and serve
their customer demand through tightly-integrated networks
of partners and suppliers, leveraging the specialized core
competencies of each member within a demand-driven
global supply chain.
■ Demand for:
- Modularity, reuse and agility of business processes
(enabled by service oriented architectures)
- Any application supporting “Speed to market” - as the
main driver today’s business
- Effective alignment of business and IT strategies
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Major Business Requirements
■ Global process automation
■ Team process automation
■ Fast and flexible new product innovation processes
■ Customer intimacy
■ Predictive business actions and processes
■ Risk-safe compliance systems
■ Modularity, reuse and agility of business processes
■ Effectively aligning business and IT strategies
■ Speed to market as the main driver of today’s business
■ Transition to SOA and SOA-compatibility of new
technologies
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Main Target Market
■ The Enterprise Application software market – a
giant with high global revenues
[Forrester Research]
The Future Of Enterprise Software, June 2006
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Business Process Management
Systems (BPMS) Categories
■ Integration-centric BPMS
■ Human-centric BPMS
[Forrester Research]
The Future Of Enterprise Software, June 2006
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Market relevance of Business Process
Management (BPM) solutions
■ Customers choose BPM to increase flexibility, efficiency and to
optimize processes, for modeling, simulation and monitoring
■ Strategic features for a successful BPM product: strong focus on
implementation time, usability, lifecycle completeness (also
monitoring and analysis!)
■ BPM solutions are chosen at the moment:
► To extract fragments of existing processes from heterogeneous legacy
systems to achieve higher integration
► To counteract internal weaknesses, i.e. due to lack of visibility and
monitoring for processes (e.g. due to Mergers & Acquisition)
► By visionaries looking for a competitive advantage
■ BPM solutions will be chosen in the near future
► To concentrate on and enhance the core processes of the enterprise
► To improve agility and flexibility in the very dynamic context of jointventure businesses
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3. Brief introduction to
SUPER methodology,
architecture and
ontology stack
SUPER Methodology Framework
The SUPER methodology is a set of
phases, methods and techniques to
perform activities using SUPER
technologies. Like a traditional BPM
methodology, the SUPER methodology
owns a proper business process “life
cycle”, that is enriched with the semantic
connotation of the overall SUPER
framework.
Business Process
Analysis
Text
Business Process
Modeling
Text
Strategic Semantic Business
Process Management
Semantic
Business Process
Analysis
Text
Semantic
Business Process
Execution
Semantic
Business Process
Modelling
Text
Semantic
Business Process
Configuration
Text
Process
Business Process Business
Business Process
Configuration
Configuration
Execution
Text
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Ontological Foundation
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SUPER Methodology
MULTI-DOMAIN
SOLUTIONS MAPS
Others
The SUPER Methodology can be
applied to a specific domain
(like in telco companies) as well
as to generic or multiple
domains (like any business
described in SAP Solution Maps)
SPECIFIC DOMAIN
YATOSP-eTOM
Others
The top and bottom layers in the SUPER methodology are:
■ Strategic Semantic Business Process Management,
which deals with all the elements related to a company
from a strictly strategic and organizational point of view
■ Ontological Foundation layer, which describes how
SUPER artifacts are transformed and "lifted" to semantic
elements: it is the SUPER Set of Ontologies for Business
Process Management
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Strategic Semantic Business
Process Management
Text
Text
Text
17
SUPER Methodology lifecycle
Semantic Business
Process Modelling,
Semantic
Business Process
Modelling
Text
Text
strictly linked to the
Ontological Foundation, permits the
ontological representation of
business processes, which in turn
enables advanced functionalities
(specifications mapping automation,
process querying, process fragment
reuse, etc.)
Semantic Business Process
Configuration enables the semi-
automated mapping between highlevel BP specifications and
executable BPEL4SWS specifications
and the integration of BPEL
with Semantic Web Services
Text
Text
Semantic
Business Process
Configuration
Text
© SUPER
Semantic Business
Process Execution,
Text
Semantic
Business Process
Execution
Text
Text
is the execution of the BPs
modeled and configured in the previous
phases and, by the use of semantic
technologies, enables the run-time
resolution of semantic goals, as well runtime service discovery and composition
Semantic Business Process
Analysis, by the use of semantic
information about BPs, enables a better
understanding of context and concepts,
allowing for automated matching and
inference functionality in process
discovery, conformance checking,
process extension and in
business question answering
Semantic
Business Process
Analysis
Text
Text
Text
18
WSMO – Semantics for SUPER
■
Aims:
■
The Web Service Modelling Ontology WSMO
■
Use of WSMO technologies in SUPER
► „ontologize“ the BPM Life Cycle
► enable BPM technologies to deal with Semantic Web Services
► increase flexibility by lifting BPM technologies to the level of goal
patterns
► a comprehensive framework for semantically enabled SOA
► 4 top level notions: ontologies, Web Services, goals, mediators
► provides axiomatization, specification language, and a reference
implementation
1. describe process data on the basis of ontologies
2. flexible Web Services invocation via Goals
– process activity realized as WSMO Goal
– dynamic discovery / composition / execution of necessary Web
Services at runtime
3. use WSMO mediators to resolve heterogeneities
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WSMO Top-level Elements
(http://www.wsmo.org)
Objectives that a client may have
when consulting a Web Service
Provide the formally
specified terminology
of the information used
by all other elements
Semantic description of
Web Services:
- Capability (functional)
- Interfaces (usage)
Connectors between components
with mediation facilities for handling
heterogeneities
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WSMO Web Service Description
Capability
functional description
Non-functional Properties
DC + QoS + Version + financial
client-service
interaction interface
for consuming WS
- external visible
behavior
- communication
structure
- ‘grounding’
Web Service
Implementation
(not of interest in Web
Service Description)
- Advertising of Web Service
- Support for WS Discovery
- complete item description
- quality aspects
- Web Service Management
WS
WS
WS
realization of
functionality by
aggregation
- functional
decomposition
- WS composition
Choreography --- Service Interfaces --- Orchestration
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Goal-driven Web Service Usage
(2) Dynamic WS Usage
(1) Abstraction Layer for Problem-oriented WS Usage
Client
objective / problem to be solved
Start
client-system interaction
WSMO Goals
formal objective description
Web
Service
discovery, composition, mediation
Semantics / SWS
Ontology
SWS description
Goal
Goal
Web
Service
Mediator
Web
Service
execution
End
End
Web Services & Resources
WS
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Internet
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SWS Usage Process
GOAL
if: successful
submission
else: try other WS
uses
Data
Mediator
Process
Mediator
matchmaking
R with all WS
Discoverer
if: usable
Selection &
Ranking
Behavioral
Conformance
uses
else:
not solvable
if: composition possible
uses
Composer
Service
Repository
composition
(executable)
if: compatible
information lookup
for particular service
Executor
if: execution
error
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From Syntactic to Semantic BPEL
b) Semantic BPEL Process
a) BPEL Process
sBPEL
Process
BPEL
Process
WSMO
Goal
WS
WS
Goal
WS
Goal
SWS
Environment
discovery
composition
mediation
execution
WS
WS
WS
dynamic detection at runtime
XML
Ontology
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Mediator
24
SUPER Architecture
Structural Perspective
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SUPER Ontology Stack
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Benefits
■ Explicate Semantic Meaning of Data & Models
■ Semantic Coherency of Information among
several levels of BPM
■ Higher Flexibility for Web Service usage
■ Automated Handling of Potential Heterogeneities
■ Make process definitions better understandable
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4. Business scenarios
(focused on Telco) for
each of the
methodology step
Telco Business Scenarios Context
Telco business scenarios (Use Cases)
provide through each step of SUPER life cycle
give usage example of SUPER
Strategic Semantic Business
Process Management
QoS in DSL (VoIP)
(Nexcom)
QoS in DSL (VoIP)
(Nexcom)
Starting
point
Semantic
Business Process
Analysis
Text
Semantic
Business Process
Execution
Semantic
Business Process
Modelling
Text
Semantic
Business Process
Configuration
Text
Ontological Foundation
DAM Searching &
Downloading (TID)
DSL (VoIP) Fulfilment
(TP)
CRM & Fulfilment
(eTel)
QoS: Quality of Service; DAM: Digital Asset Management; VoIP: Voice over IP; CRM: Customer Relationship Management
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4a. Modelling
Semantic Business Process Modelling
■ First step of the SUPER Life Cycle
■ Development of the Business Processes Model
based on the Business Process Modelling Ontology
(BPMO)
■ Use of a Semantic Process
Modelling Environment
► WSMO Studio
► Integrated BPMO Editor
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Modelling Requirements and
Methodology
■ Business Process Model based on:
► Company specific Business Function and Domain Ontologies
► Semantic Web Services and Goals
■ Business Process Model sources are:
► Business Analyst implicit knowledge and studies (business
questions, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), business
outcomes, etc.)
► Analysis reports created in an eventual previous Semantic
Business Process (SBP) Analysis phase
■ Several modelling methodology are possible:
► Start business process modelling from scratch
► Modify existing semantic business processes
► Annotating non-semantic business processes
► Re-use process patterns previously modeled
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Example: TID Prototype
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Benefits of SUPER Modelling
■ Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN)
independence (BPMO representation)
■ Discovery of existing Business Processes
exploiting the semantic information
► Search on specified Business Function, Business Domain and
Business Patterns
► Search on specified Business Goals, KPIs and Business Rules
■ Automatic validation and simulation of the BPM
■ Better readibility of models through a clear
semantic
Screencast:
http://www.wsmostudio.org/demo/BPMO-editor.htm
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4b. Configuration
Semantic Business Process
Configuration
■ Modelled Business Processes are configured
■ Functions supported
► Mapping of semantic BPEL processes (BPEL4SWS)
► Integration of BPEL with SWS
■ SUPER functionalities used
► Task and process composition (SBP Composition)
► SWS and process fragment discovery (SBP Discovery)
► Semantic Business Process Repository
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Example: SBP Configuration
Scenarios
CRM & Fulfilment (eTel)
DSL Fulfilment (TP)
Sales department /
CRM
eTel Product Ordering (CRM ß ß Fulfillment)
Create customer
Send postal
confirmation to
customer
Create account
Customer Order
DN exists?
no
Assign directory
number
yes
Account
[inactive]
Repopulation
concluded
DN porting
Notify for manual
repopulation
Customer
[active]
Manual DN
Order Fulfillment
Create email box
Decompose
product bundle
Assign SIP URL
Activate account
aDSL router procurement
Send CPE
request to 3rd
party supplier
CPE delivered
Mail porting
request to
current provider
DN porting
Porting
response
Account
[active]
Info entered
manually via
order entry
Manual DN
Customer Order Request
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Configuration Requirements
■ Each subsystem (its functionalities) represented by
Semantic WS’s (SWS)
■ Each SWS described by the ontology
■ BPMO process composition
► Task Composition implements each BPMO task with a combination of
WS
► Consistency Checking finds and removes bugs in the overall process
■ Use of SUPER Ontologies
► Mapping BPMO into executable BPMO – all tasks bound to existing
WS
► Domain ontologies specify how WS affect the world – basis for
combining WS and for checking/fixing the process
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Benefits of SUPER Configuration
■ Binding process to company IT infrastructure
■ Coming from general process model to its
concrete realisation
■ Bridging the gap between business process
analyst and IT professional
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4c. Execution
Semantic Business Process Execution
■ Modeled and configured Semantic Business
Processes are executed
■ Execution history for SBP Analysis is produced
■ Automates business activities
■ Minimizes time-to-offer
■ Supports
► Execution of semantic BPEL processes
(BPEL4SWS)
► Discovery and execution of Semantic
Web Services (SWS)
Semantic
Business Process
Analysis
Semantic
Business Process
Execution
© SUPER
Semantic
Business Process
Modelling
Semantic
Business Process
Configuration
Text
41
Semantic Business Process
Execution Scenario
SUPER Tooling
During
theinitiates
execution,
the execution
semantic events
1 A user
After the process
delegates
execution
the invocation
has
6
2 SBPELEE
BPEL
are
published
process
tothe
Execution
sending
a
service
for
queriesby
returns
result
SWS repository
ofHistory
“Achieve
3 SEE
5
SEE
invokes
thepassing
selected
SWS.
been
of
finished,
to SEE the
by
result
isthe
returned
WSMO
4 SWS
request
persistence
anddesired
to
thethe
Semantic
Monitoring
Tool
to
Goal”
discover
to through
SBPELEE.
the
SWS.
to thetouser.
Goal
it.
Service
for
tracking
Bus process
to SBPELEE.
executions.
Monitoring
Tool
Request
Service
1
6
Return Result
Semantic Web
Service
(SWS)
4
2
Achieve Goal
5
Return result to
engine
Semantic
BPEL
Execution
Engine
(SBPELEE)
3
Semantic
Execution
Environment
(SEE)
SUPER Execution Environment
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Discover Service
Invoke Service
Semantic Service Bus
(SSB)
Semantic
Web
Services
Execution
History
SUPER Repositories
42
Customer
Group Customers
Example: Nexcom Customer Order
Management Process
Send Service
Receive Offer
Send Preference
Request uses a and
Quality
Customer
client
application
to start the Nexcom
process
1
Receive Price
6
1
6
Supplier Match?
Receive Price
and Quality
Preference
Send Offer
No
Sales
Yes
and Quality
Obtain Price and
Quality data
Supplier
Suppliers
Check for Price
and Quality
Nexcom process is deployed as a semantic
BPEL
process
Receive Price
Negotiate Price
Billing
Nexcom System
Receive Service
Request
2
Receive
Request for
Price and
Quality
and Quality
5
Supplier exposes its process as SWS.
© SUPER
Send Price and
Quality
Supplier
Supplier
Supplier
43
Benefits from SUPER SBP Execution
■ Nexcom Use case requirements addressed by the
SUPER SBP Execution phase
► Supplier matching supported by Semantic Web Service
discovery and invocation from within semantic business
processes
► Allows for more flexible traffic routing
► Automates supplier matching and traffic routing process
taking into account all existing suppliers
► Minimizes time-to-offer
Screencast:
http://www.iaas.uni-stuttgart.de/forschung/projects/super/nexcom-usecase.avi
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4d. Analysis
Semantic Business Process Analysis
■ Analysis of executed processes
■ Support of various analysis goals
► Overview over process usage
► Detect business exceptions
► Detect technical exceptions
► Compare As-Is with To-Be
Semantic
Business Process
Analysis
Semantic
Business Process
Modelling
■ Analysis Methods
► Semantic
Process Mining
► Semantic
Reverse Business Engineering
Semantic
Business Process
Execution
Semantic
Business Process
Configuration
 Prerequisite for continuous improvement
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Semantic Process Mining
Process
Perspective
Case Perspective
Organizational
1. Semantic auditing
■ Use semantic information to
check for properties in logs
Perspective
When?
How?
2. Semantic control-flow mining
Who?
■ Use semantic information to support different levels of
abstraction in the mined models
3. Semantic organizational mining
■ Automatically derive the teams and groups in the organization
based on task similarity
4. Semantic performance analysis
■ Use semantic information to check for Service Level
Agreements (SLAs), throughput times, bottlenecks etc.
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Semantic Reverse Business
Engineering (RBE)
How do I get the
relevant information
to redesign and
improve my business
processes?
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■ Scenario based analysis with
predefined content to ensure
continuous business improvement
► As-Is-Analysis
Provide Details and statistics about executed
processes
► Exception analysis
Focus on business exceptions (deviation from
the standard processes)
► Standardisation & Harmonisation
Check compliance of processes between
organisational units or with predefined
guidelines
► User & Role analysis
Check user and role behaviour and
authorizations
48
Scenario Based Analysis
RBE Ontology
I am interested in
all exceptions of
the sales process
Business Function Ontology
Exception
Analysis
Sales Process
How many sales orders
were cancelled?
Which sales orders are locked
for further processing?
Business
Only
business
questions
questions
are executed
semantically
The query results are
assigned
on
the Execution
to Exception
History
Analysis
Repository
formatted and aggregated for
and file)
(log
to the
either
Sales
directly
Process
or
the business user
are to beProcess
through
selectedMining
Analysis
Results
© SUPER 15.04.2020
Business Question Repository
How many sales orders are delayed?
Where are the bottlenecks in the
sales process?
Execution
History
Repository
Process Mining
49
Analysis Results
How many sales orders were cancelled?
Successful Sales
Orders
Cancelled Sales
Orders
Which sales orders are locked for further processing?
►Get overview about system usage
►Find out exceptions within process flow
►Check conformance to defined Process model
►Find bottlenecks
►Get basis information to apply 6-sigma methodology
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5. Business impact
SUPER Unique Selling Proposition
Semantically enriched Business Process Mgmt:
■ SUPER bridges the gap between Business experts
and IT experts in setting up new products and
processes
■ SUPER provides a new set of integrated BPM tools
for
► Modelling
► Automated Composition of Processes
■ SUPER uses Semantics to gain a new level of
automation for the modelling and configuration of
business processes
■ SUPER tools are based on open standards to
guarantee independence from particular vendors
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SUPER Unique Selling Proposition
■ Economic advantages
► lower development costs and
► shorter time-to-market for new services and products
■ Target Group Business Users
► Global players
► SMEs and government agencies
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Business Impact
■ Better process monitoring leading to more
transparency
► Faster reactions to emergency situations (technical problems,
market requirements…)
► Optimization of CRM, customer analysis, market analysis
■ Flexible product design and management
► Design: SUPER offers the opportunity to create new products
out of a library of existing processes - in short time, without
involving IT resources and without additional costs
► Flexible product provisioning: technical realization of business
processes can be changed without redesigning the process
itself
■ Enabling the user to rapidly implement and test
business processes
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Competitive Impact
■ Shorter Time to Market
■ Agile Enterprises
■ Clear cost savings in terms of ROI (Return of
Invest), DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) and FTE
(Full times Equivalent)
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Business Opportunities
■ Improved service discovery & matching in
existing products
■ Ontology modelling support and semantic search
for existing BPM products
■ R&D and consultancy services for early adopters
■ Creation of custom components for the alignment
of existing products with recent SWS and BPM
standards
■ Introduction of semantic BPM solutions to
heterogeneous service landscapes
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6. Next
steps/objectives of
the project
Next steps
■ SUPER will continue identifying and leveraging
the potential of semantics in order to:
► enable the business user to utilize semantics in
the frame of BPM,
► improve productivity of business processes and increase levels
of quality,
■ SUPER Use Case WPs contribute to these issues
by helping organizations to understand how a
Semantically Enabled Business Process
Management enables an agile response to recent
business changes
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